Bagels & St. Patrick's Day Shenanigans

You know you're getting old when instead of joining in on the college kids partying on the train, you're thinking "will those kids just shut up?!!! Can't a girl ride on a train in some peace and quiet?!" I hate to admit how annoyed I was this morning with all of the kids drinking and being loud on the 10:30 train.. I mean c'mon, isn't that a bit early?! At least it entertained me a bit, until I put on my ipod to block them out.

It took me some extra time to get out of penn station this morning while dodging all of the drunk green people trying to get to the parade. I got to school at 12 for a meeting and then headed to class to make BAGELS! I've always loved a nice fluffy, chewy bagel!

After Chef demo'd the different doughs and explained the nature of yeast...and after I mistakenly admitted I was a Yankee's fan (I was totally just kidding, Chef.. I don't like the Yankees at all!!!), we got to work on forming the doughs with our partners. We started out by making the brioche levain. This yeast/flour concoction rested over the stove during the whole class so that it could ferment and rise. Next, we made the croissant detrampe that we will complete tomorrow (by rolling and folding in butter like puff pastry..ugh). The croissant dough will rest in the fridge until tomorrow, which "retards" the fermentation so that it does not over-ferment (the cold temperature slows down the activity of the yeast).

Finally, we began working on our bagel and pretzel doughs, which we were able to bake off today. The doughs were very similar, although the bagel dough was a bit drier than the pretzel. After the doughs rested, we formed them out into bagel and pretzel shapes and poached them for 30 seconds in simmering water.

Here are our bagels all ready to be poached:

After they were poached, we sprinkled on toppings (bagel salt, poppy seeds, and sesame seeds) and baked them in the oven until they were beautifully browned and puffed:

These were so so so so good! I had one right out of the oven with some scallion cream cheese (courtesy of Kim) and fresh sliced tomato.. I was in heaven.

We did the same thing with our pretzels (except added some baking powder to the simmering water).

The pretzels were also wonderful straight out of the oven (with some dijon mustard of course).

More obnoxious drunk people on the train ride home.. I should have passed out bagels and pretzels to sober them up hehe